Biden to Zapatero: Hey, thanks for all that help in Iraq

posted at 9:48 am on March 29, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

Barcepundit catches Joe Biden in Spain doing … well, what Joe Biden does best. Joe Biden remembered to thank Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero for all the help he gave us in Iraq, except that the only thing Zapatero gave us in Iraq was the finger:

MAN, BIDEN IS A GAFFE WITH LEGS: during his meeting with Spain’s primer minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in Chile yesterday, Biden thanked Zapatero for his effort… in Iraq (link in Spanish, haven’t found this detail in any English-language media).

As everybody knows, the first decision Zapatero made after his unexpected win in 2004, right after the Madrid train terrorist attacks, was to abruptly and unilaterally pull out from Iraq. So either Biden made a gaffe, or he was thanking Zapatero for angering Bush…

No, I think Biden would have been blunt enough to just say, “Thanks for ticking off George Bush.” It should be noted that the Spanish Finger to the US didn’t just include pulling out of Iraq, but also refusing to train Iraqi security forces.

Originally, Zapatero explained his abrupt retreat by objecting to a lack of UN mandate for the mission. When the UN finally did give the US a mandate for rebuilding Iraq, Zapatero refused to return to the coalition. In doing so, he earned the (unfortunately) undying gratitude of … Moqtada al-Sadr. So I guess Biden and Sadr share that feeling of gratitide. In the end, of course, the fast retreat Zapatero conducted did nothing to remove the former al-Andalusia from al-Qaeda’s sights. Just six months after announcing their withdrawal, AQ tried bombing their High Court.

Regarding Iraq, Biden should have said, “Thanks for nothing.” But then again, no one but Barack Obama really thought Biden was a foreign-policy expert, anyway.

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“The very good news is that we are willing to and want to collaborate. The bad news is that you don’t have the last (US) administration to use as an excuse … for non-action,” he said referring to former US president George W Bush.

But then again, no one but Barack Obama really thought Biden was a foreign-policy expert, anyway.

As a matter of fact Ed, there was someone else. According to the galactic netmind known as Wikipedia, Biden styled himself as a foreign affairs pro. He also suggested that all the other Democrats in the primary thought so too:

At a 2007 campaign event, Biden said, “I know a lot of my opponents out there say I’d be a great Secretary of State. Seriously, every one of them. Do you watch any of the debates? ‘Joe’s right, Joe’s right, Joe’s right.'”

In a possible defense of Biden, perhaps he was thanking the PM in that official’s representative capacity. That is, he was thanking Spain the country for its early help in Iraq, not meaning to thank Zapatero personally. Or perhaps Biden was being cleverly sarcastic, as in “yeah thanks a lot Zapatero, you craven weasel, for pulling out of Iraq.” Biden was an Iraq war supporter and for quite awhile as I remember it.

How in this world can Biden NOT know about Zapatero pulling out of Iraq after the train bombing? It’s not like Biden is a first term Senator or something even though that would not really be an acceptable excuse for this either. This leaves me in total disbelief.

President Obama and his new foreign policy team, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have hit the ground running and are showing the world that the real America – the best America– is back……(Dem Fund Raising Letter)–Signed, Nancy Pelosi and Madelaine Allbright

The adults are in charge now. Historians will rate Biden the best Vice-President ever.

Nyah nyah.

getalife

Del Dolemonte on March 29, 2009 at 10:16 AM

And to think, choosing Biden was Obama’s assurance to the country that since the streets of international affairs were to dangerous for a schoolboy in his knickers, that uncle Joe would be there to hold his hand to walk him across.

Taking glee from a foreign court prosecuting an American citizen for political reasons?

Getlost.

Limerick on March 29, 2009 at 10:57 AM

From wizbang:

This particular Spanish inquisition will be a litmus test for the Obama administration as it will tell the public whether real adults are in charge of US foreign policy and the War on Terror or if the radicals bent on revenge at all costs have assumed control.

“When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.

The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.

In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida’s tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida — chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates — was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.

There’s little hope that Biden will ever change his gaffe-prone pronouncements. Hopefully, America will fire him in 4 years and send him back home to another less prominent goverment job. Where’s the piano wire? What’s the frequency Kenneth?